The Naiad Voyages

Mark Austen

2016.10.21 - More in the Cockpit

Friday, 21 October, 2016

First task today, seeing as the epoxy on the coamings has not fully cured just yet as it was cool last night, was to screw the cam cleat on to the top of the centreboard case under the bridge deck that will hold the rope used to pull up the centreboard. I managed to get the aft most screw in place but the forward one was difficult. Even with the right-angle attachment for the drill, the drill and bit was too long to be able to drill the hole. I didn't think of this before I installed the bridge deck.

I bough a stub bit, much shorter than a standard drill bit and that just squeezed in the space allowing me to drill the pilot and clearance hole for the screw. So that is that done.

Then I turned to the port seat and locker. This was dismantled, sealed and put back together again including a batten that I had forgotten to make. Finally, for this stint that is, I made two covering pieces for the right angle corners of the seats. I could have gone to a woodyard and bought a piece of quadrant hardwood, but that was a lot of effort for two 16" pieces, so I made my own.

Then...tea break.

Once of the nice things about having the correct tools for a job is that they are the correct tools for the job. Two of the holes I drilled in the port seat were in the wrong place. So I drilled the holes out and made plugs for them. This is the result after the plugs have been glued in place and then sanded once the glue had dried. Good eh?

Here is a closer look at one of the plugs as they are not very easy to see in the first photo.

Here are the two covering pieces. The two angled pieces of wood are there to wedge the covering pieces in place while the sealant cures. These are not glued, screwed or nails, just held in place with sealant. You can also see the cam cleat on top of the centreboard case.